Telecommunications services are an integral part of business and personal communications, allowing geographically remote users to communicate irrespective of location. The costs incurred by users for engaging in remote communication, however, may vary depending on the origination location and/or destination location of the communication. For instance, a user may incur additional charges (e.g., long distance fees) beyond a normal subscription rate for communicating from a location outside of a predefined calling area.
In general, local exchange carriers (LECs), such as public telephone companies, for example, may only offer telecommunications services to users residing in certain local access and transport areas (LATAs). Each LATA may define a particular geographic area serviced by one or more LECs and may be established by regulations governing the provision and administration of telecommunications services. One example of a LEC is a pubic telephone company that provides local telecommunications services to subscribers located in geographic proximity to the central office, i.e., the local exchange, of the LEC.
Typically, placing a call between remote users located in different LATAs requires the services of an interexchange carrier (IXC) in addition to the services of the LECs. An example of an IXC is a long distance carrier such as AT&T, MCI, or Sprint. In general, the IXC establishes a connection between the remote LECs and charges a fee for providing long distance service.
The utilization of IXCs or long distance carriers results in increased costs to users. Accordingly, users would benefit from a communications system that enables geographically remote users to communicate while avoiding the long distance charges typically associated with such communication.